


Peter Meets Morgan's Not-So-"Imaginary" Friends

by ash_mcj



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Magic Revealed, Magic-Users, Magical World, Morgan Stark is Pixie, Morgan Stark is a faerie, Morgan Stark's Not-So-Imaginary Friends, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark Friendship (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Post-Endgame, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark is a faerie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25119319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ash_mcj/pseuds/ash_mcj
Summary: When Pepper recruits Peter Parker to try to pull Morgan Stark from her fantasy world, he realizes that maybe she isn't as delusional as Pepper fears. In other words, Morgan shows Peter the hidden world she lives in and Peter isn't quite sure how to tell Pepper that he isn't cut out to try to take that from her.(Feel free to check out/subscribe to the Series "The Magical Life of Morgan Stark", but it is not required to read this!)
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Kudos: 34





	Peter Meets Morgan's Not-So-"Imaginary" Friends

It had been two weeks since Peter Parker had slept in his bed in Aunt May’s apartment, and four months since he’d been able to sleep through the night. He thought the nightmares from his run-in with the Vulture were bad, but they had nothing on the ones that followed Thanos, the Decimation, and the death of the last man he’d seen as a father figure. Everything went downhill after Tony Stark died. 

Peter lost most of the driving force behind wanting to be a hero, because how could he possibly protect anyone when he could barely keep himself from wanting to jump off the top of the old Stark Tower? How could he fight crime when he was having PTSD episodes every night? 

Then he tried again, and made the biggest mistake of his life in trusting Quentin Beck. He should have hung up the suit, like he wanted to. He ever should have stepped into that world again. He knew what could happen to heroes and he knew that he wasn’t cut out for it. It was the dumbest thing he’d ever done, and it caused him to not only be severely injured and give him a billion more PTSD triggers, but it led to the public reveal of his secret identity and landed him with possible murder charges for Beck.

“Peter, honey, are you okay in there? I haven’t seen you all morning.” Pepper called through his bedroom door. He glanced over at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was nearly noon. His blackout windows were dangerous--last time he looked at the time it was only four. He’d been reading his book on Nuclear Theory for almost eight hours. He’d been reading a lot lately to keep his mind occupied, because it was not a fun time when he was left alone with his thoughts.

He really didn’t think he deserved the kindness that Pepper showed when she all but forced him to move to the Stark cabin to live with her and Morgan. Since the day he was outed two weeks ago, she’d been treating him as one of her own children and using the entire Stark Industries legal team to work on clearing his name and charges. Whenever he tried to deny her help, she’d insist that it’s what Tony would have wanted--and Peter couldn’t really argue with that. One, because you can’t argue with  _ Pepper _ , and two, because both her and Happy had expressed to him on several occasions how much Tony cared for him, and he figured they’d know better than anyone how Tony felt.

“Uh, yeah. I’m awake. Just got distracted reading, I guess.” he answered, his voice hoarse from the lack of use, mixed with his nightly routine of crying through his panic attacks.

“I’m coming in.” Pepper warned, giving him a moment to refuse if he was indecent, before opening the door and stepping inside. She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed, patting his shin comfortingly through the blanket over his legs. “You look tired. You aren’t sleeping.”

“I’m sleeping.” Peter shrugged, looking down at the book in his hands as he fidgeted with the corners of a page.

“Peter Parker, don’t even try to lie to me. I’m pretty much a professional bullshit detector, after spending so many years with Tony.” she told him, reaching out carefully and tipping his face up to make him look at her. Despite her deliberately slow movements, he still flinched when her hand came into his line of sight. “Is it nightmares?”

“It’s life.” He answered, honestly. They were nightmares, but...were they? They really happened. Could he even call them nightmares?

“C’mon, you can’t spend another day in your room like this. Morgan’s out by the lake and I’d prefer it if she had someone out there watching her. Mind if you do that while I take care of some work stuff?”

“Yeah, sure.”

When Peter didn’t make a move to get up, Pepper grabbed onto his hands and pulled him up out of bed. He could have resisted it if he wanted to, but he wasn’t  _ that  _ dumb.

Once he was on his feet, he followed her out to the kitchen. Looking out the window, he saw the four-year-old laughing and talking to someone who quite obviously wasn’t there.

“She’s still doing that?” Peter asked. He hadn’t been out of his room much since moving in, but he remembered Pepper talking about Morgan’s Imaginary Friends at Tony’s funeral.

“Yep, every day. She goes out there around eight in the morning and pretty much only comes in for meals.” she said, shaking her head disapprovingly. “I used to tell Tony not to play along, because it just validated them to her, but he insisted that it would cause more harm to make her think she’s crazy, since she believes in them whole-heartedly. It’s gotten worse though--I feel like she goes out there just to feel close to them. She’s totally detached from reality and I have no idea how to make her understand that she’s living in a fantasy world. It can’t be healthy at this point.”

“You’ve tried talking to her about it?”

“Of course I have, but she just gets mad and tells me I don’t understand. She won’t listen to reason at all--she’s stubborn, just like her dad.”

“She’s stubborn like the both of you.” Peter reasoned and Pepper couldn’t really argue. Morgan was bound to be a strong-willed, immovable force in this world.

“Do you think you could try talking to her, Pete?” Pepper all but begged. He could tell she was genuinely concerned. “She absolutely adores you...maybe if you tried explaining it to her, she wouldn’t brush it off. I’m just her old bossy mom--but you’re her cool older brother. She’d probably listen to you.”

Peter still wasn’t used to being considered someone’s older brother. He turned to dust as an only child and reappeared five years later as part of a family he never imagined he’d belong to, with a younger sister that wanted everything to do with him. He never would have imagined that Tony would raise his daughter with the idea that they were related, but he couldn't pretend it didn't make him happy.

“Yeah, of course. I’ll go talk to her.” He agreed, causing Pepper to sigh in relief.

“Perfect. I’ll leave you to it, then. I’ll be in the office working on some stuff. Come get me if you need anything.”

With that, Pepper left back down the hall and Peter walked out the front door. As Peter neared Morgan, she looked up at him excitedly.

“Hi, Pete!” she chirped, smiling brightly. Peter was pretty sure her energy could light up the entire damn world. “Are you coming to hang out with us?”

“Er, yeah. I am, actually. Can I sit here with you?”

“Not there!” She shouted, stopping him from sitting where he was. She motioned for him to move over about a foot to the left instead. “That’s where Butterfingers is--you almost sat on him!”

“Sorry.” Peter said awkwardly. He sat where she had pointed and looked over at the empty space that was ‘Butterfingers’. “Did you name him that after your Dad’s robot, or did you come up with that name yourself?”

“Daddy didn’t have a robot named Butterfingers. His robots are Dum-E and U.” Morgan told him, raising one of her dark eyebrows confusedly. “And I didn’t name Butterfingers--Daddy did. He was his friend, too.”

“Your mom is worried about you, Morgs.”

“Mommy is always worried. Daddy used to say that all the time... That’s why he didn’t tell her about Butterfingers.”

Peter wasn’t sure how Pepper and Morgan were able to talk about Tony without breaking down. Peter couldn’t even  _ think _ about him for very long without feeling tears spring to his eyes.

“Yeah, well that’s because she loves you. I wanted to talk to you about your imaginary friends...you know they aren’t real, right? It’s okay to have imaginary friends, but you need to also hang out with real people like your mom or me or Happy or Rhodey...you have to live in the real world, not just the imaginary one. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“They  _ are _ real, Peter. I promise they are. Daddy believed me. I showed him and he saw them, too.”

“Sometimes parents play along and pretend to see imaginary friends, just to be nice. It doesn’t mean--”

“They’re  _ real _ .” She insisted, raising her voice slightly.

“Morgan, they aren’t. Nobody is here, except for you and I. There’s no Butterfingers or any other one of your friends.”

“Just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t real. Can you see Santa Claus?” 

Morgan’s argument was so innocent and pure that Peter had to remember how young she was. Morgan was only four, but she often had the demeanor and intelligence of someone at least a few years older--which made it easy to forget her age sometimes. If Pepper hadn’t done so much for him, he would have stayed out of this. Imaginary friends were normal for four-year-olds, right? Couldn’t  _ anyone  _ else have this conversation with her?

“I know living an imaginary world is probably more fun than the real world, but...your mom is scared for you. She--”

“She thinks I’m crazy. I heard her tell Uncle Rhodey that she thought I was crazy.”

“I don’t think she meant that. It’s normal to have an imagination...but there has to be a stop to how real your imagination is in your head. She just--”

Peter’s spidey sense suddenly went off and his hand shot up just in time to deflect an acorn that was thrown at his head. He turned to the side, looking for what had thrown it at him. He didn’t see anyone on the entire front lawn.  Morgan giggled and looked in the same direction, drawing Peter’s attention.

“What was that?” he asked her. She pointed towards the empty area and Peter looked again. There was nothing. “Morgan, was that you?”

“How would it be me? I’m sitting right here with you.”

Another acorn flew at him from a different direction, fueling another round of laughter from the child.

“Morgan, are you sure it’s not you? Do you have powers or something? Are you a mutant?”

“A mutant!” a voice shouted amusedly from somewhere nearby, causing Peter to finch and move to get up.  Morgan reached out and held his arm to prevent him from getting to his feet.

“It’s okay, Pete, it’s just Olavis. He likes to cause trouble and he isn’t used to new people coming out here. He’s not allowed in the house, so there aren’t many people for him to be able to prank. He’s pranking who he can.”

“Morgan, what’s going on?” Peter asked her, anxiety beginning to creep up his spine. His mind was racing to try to figure out how he could possibly not see the attacker. It was too similar to Beck.

“Would you like me to show you? Do you want to see?” she asked him.

Peter knew he wasn’t supposed to be validating her behavior, but he needed to see whatever was around them. There had to be an explanation and if Morgan was somehow able to show him, he wanted to know.

“Yeah...but how can you show me?”

“Daddy taught me a trick right before he went away to save the world. He told me to close my eyes and think about the ball of magic inside my tummy and then think about blowing some of it out. When I blow it into someone’s face, they get Sight for the day, until you go to sleep.” She explained, moving over to stand on her knees in front of where he was sitting. “I used to do it to Daddy, so he could see again. He told me he had Sight when he was little, but not anymore.”

Magic? Sight? Maybe Morgan really  _ was  _ crazy.

“So...you’re going to breathe on me and I’ll be able to see your imaginary friends?”

“They aren’t imaginary, but yes.” Morgan said excitedly. She placed her small hands on Peter’s face and grinned, positioning herself about six inches from him. “Just look at my eyes and breathe normal.”

Peter wasn’t sure why he was doing this, but it couldn’t hurt, right? He nodded and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, before opening them again and staring into his. She softly blew out cool air against his face and, to his surprise, there appeared to be glitter on her breath. As instructed, he breathed in the shimmering air and a tingling sensation that made him want to sneeze took over his senses, before he saw her eyes changing.  Her warm brown irises shifted to a bright pink color that spilled into her pupil, while her scleras turned an inky black. She pulled back a bit and he noticed that her long brown hair was now a similar shade of pink as her eyes and was tucked behind long, pointed ears. Behind her, he could see the tops of colorful, transparent, insectoid wings.

Peter threw himself backwards onto the ground, pushing himself away from her.

“Y-You--your--you’re not--” he stuttered, his skin prickling with the oncoming anxiety attack he was trying desperately to keep at bay. Was this real? Was he crazy? Was Beck back and messing with his head again?

_ 'You are so gullible. I mean you're as smart as a whip, just a... sucker.'  _ Peter could hear Beck’s voice in his head and his mind was racing to try to figure out how Beck could possibly be alive and here. If this wasn’t Morgan--where was she? Was she okay? Was Pepper okay?

“Peter, are you alright?” Morgan asked, reaching for Peter, who was hyperventilating.

“He broke.” A creature Peter had never seen in his life said, staring at him. He was about half of Morgan’s height and had a large flat pig-like nose and huge pointed ears. His grey body was clad in worn-out rags that seemed to be sewn into clothing. “This is why you aren’t supposed to go around telling the humans about our world--they’re too fragile.”

“He’s trustworthy, Olavis...he just has some problems with his mind sometimes because he’s a superhero.” Morgan explained, taking a hesitant step towards Peter. “Petey, are you okay?”

“Who are you?” Peter asked her.

“It’s me, Morgan. Your little sister. I know I look different like this, but it’s me. Look, feel.” Morgan assured him, holding her hand out. He looked at the outstretched appendage and then back at her hesitantly, before reaching out and lightly holding her hand. She smiled and squeezed it three times, something she was known to do to silently tell people that she loved them. Her touch seemed to ground him and he closed his eyes to focus on pushing the anxiety back down to normal levels, before he opened them again.

“You...what are you?” He finally asked her.

“This kid doesn’t seem very bright...he’s looking at a girl with pink hair, wings, and pointy ears and he can’t even come up with a guess that she’s a faerie.” Olavis judged, looking him over. “Are you sure he’s Tony’s kid?”

“Daddy said he's adopted, so yeah.” Morgan shrugged. “I’m part faerie, like Daddy was. These are my best friends, Olavis--he’s a hobgoblin--and Butterfingers--he’s a brownie and sometimes a boggart. Depends on his mood. Olavis and Butterfingers, this is my brother Peter.”

“I know Peter Parker from Tony’s workshop. ” Butterfingers said proudly, gaining Peter’s attention. He looked similar to a human, but was only about six inches tall and had a bit wider-proportioned features. “Hello, Peter, my name is Butterfingers!”

“I thought...I thought Butterfingers was a nickname for Dum-E or U or  _ something _ \--I didn’t think Tony had a...a…”

“A brownie.” Morgan filled in, causing Peter to nod.

“I lived in Stark Manor when Tony was young and we became friends. I loved to help him clean the workshop and hand him all his tools! It was great fun.”

“Brownies are super loyal and they like taking care of houses and things. They also tend to steal things to put in their nest, so if something of yours goes missing, well...it was probably Butterfingers.” Morgan told him.

“He could see you? Tony, I mean. He was...like Morgan?” Peter asked the Brownie.

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no--only when I wanted him to. He gave up his Sight when he was thirteen, so my glamour started working on him.” Butterfingers said. “And of course he was like Morgan! This is how genetics works, right? Obviously Pepper is not a faerie--she thinks we’re imaginary! So, of course Tony had to be. I thought you were smart?”

“Sorry, this is just...a lot to take in.” Peter mumbled, looking at the three of them. “What’s glamour?”

“It’s the natural spell that makes humans not see the magical world. If you’re part of the magical world, you have Sight. If you don’t have Sight, you can only see the creatures if they want you to see them. Magical creatures are born with glamour for protection, but they can turn it off and on when they've reached maturity.” Olavis explained. “That’s why you see Morgan differently usually. We’ve only ever seen her the way you see her now, because this is her true form and her natural glamour doesn't work on us since we're part of faeriekind.”

“So...Tony looked like this?” Peter asked, motioning to Morgan.

“When he was young, yes! They look remarkably similar. When he chose to pursue a mortal human life, though, his glamoured appearance became his only one, so his faerie body was not there for very long.” Butterfingers said.

“Why did he give it up?”

“How am I supposed to know? It was not my business. My job was to keep his room and his workshop tidy and help with his building--not to ask him about why he didn’t want to be a faerie. He must have had reasons. Not my business! Not my concern!” 

“Right.” Peter nodded. He glanced around the lawn and saw small creatures scurrying about that he hadn’t been able to see before. How did he not hear them or sense them or  _ something _ before? He turned and looked out into the water, where there were several human-like heads poking out, looking curiously at him once they realized that he could see them. They were beautiful in a way he knew wasn’t human and looked about his age. “Are those...mermaids?”

“No, they’re naiads. Naiads live in freshwater, mermaids live in saltwater! It’s common knowledge.” Olavis corrected.

“Not for humans, you duffus.” Butterfingers shook his head. “They wouldn’t know the difference between a naiad and a mermaid, because they don’t even know they  _ exist _ . Do you even have a brain?”

“You’re not crazy.” Peter realized, looking at the faerie girl sitting cross-legged in front of him. He looked at her wings curiously and realized that they were definitely pink, but had a rainbow shine to them, when the sunlight hit them.

“I know I’m not.” Morgan smiled. “I told you.”

“Why haven’t you shown your mom? If she knew--”

“She can’t know. Daddy didn’t want her to know, because she would worry and probably try to keep me away from this world even more. He said Mommy would be super scared because she couldn’t see the creatures so she wouldn't ever know where they are or if they were scary.” Morgan explained. “Plus, I can’t give Sight to someone who doesn’t want it. It won’t work unless you _want_ to see. Mommy is too closed-minded when it comes to this stuff...I’ve tried a lot of times.”

“Well...I believe you now. I’m sorry I didn’t before.” Peter apologized.

“Thank you. Whenever you want Sight, you can just ask and you can come out here with me and hang out with Butterfingers and Olavis and the other creatures.”

“Or I can spit in your eyes and you won’t need Morgan’s help to have Sight.” Olavis offered. “Hobgoblin spit gives you permanent Sight.”

“Uh, thank you for the offer, Olavis...can I think about it?”

“Yes, yes, you can. Just don’t tell anybody. You are only trusted because you are part of a faerie family.” 

“Peter, Morgan!” Pepper called from the porch. “Lunch will be ready soon. Come in and wash your hands.”

“Coming, Mommy!” Morgan responded, jumping to her feet. She leaned down and offered her hand to Butterfingers, who quickly climbed up her arm and sat on her shoulder. “Remember, don’t tell Mommy anything, okay, Pete? Do you pinkie swear?”

“Yeah, I promise.” Peter agreed, linking pinkies with her.

“See you later, Olavis.” Morgan waved to him, before running up to the house. Peter watched as the hobgoblin scurried up the trunk of the acorn tree and disappeared into Morgan’s treehouse, where Peter guessed he lived.

As soon as Peter stepped into the house, Pepper pulled him aside.

“Did you talk to her?” she asked him.

“Er, yeah. I did.”

“And…What happened?”

“I...well, I...I don’t think I can tell her it’s not real.”

“She’s four--how could you possibly be intimidated by her?” Pepper asked, disbelieving. “You’re Spider-Man!”

“It’s not that...I just can’t tell her what she believes isn’t real. Just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean she’s crazy.”

“So you believe her?”

“I mean...yeah. I have no reason to not believe her...truth unless proven a lie, right? I can't prove it's not true, so I don't want to pretend like I know.”

Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “What is it with you and Tony? He used to call her gifted and swear that it was real and we shouldn’t intervene.”

“She _is_ gifted.” Peter agreed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t take that from her.”

“It’s fine.” Pepper waved him off. “I’m not mad, I just don’t see how this is happening. Go wash your hands--I made sandwiches.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to support me even more, you could follow [My Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/marvel-obsessed-chick)
> 
> Subscribe to the series "The Magical Life of Morgan Stark", if you want to read more stories set in this world!
> 
> [Also...yes, this world is a mixture of Fablehaven and Spiderwick Chronicles, but not enough to justify saying it's a crossover fic]


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